Note: This is a follow-up blog entry to yesterday’s post about using the Zoiper SIP client on Linux. Linphone works comparably well so far and if I won’t come across any issues, I will recommend Linphone, since it is fully Open Source, which future-proofs is existence and allows others to contribute and improve the software better than for a closed-source product like Zoiper.
Linphone is a GPL licensed SIP client (“softphone”). It has been around since 2001 and is actively developed by the French company Belledonne Communications.
As the name suggests, the software was first developed for Linux but has gradually become truly cross-platform, now supporting Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8 and most recently a web edition. For most operating systems, simply visit linphone.org and follow the download and installation steps indicated there.
Users of GNU/Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, etc, install the distribution package through their favorite package manager. On my Debian stable (“wheezy”) I did this today:
sudo apt-get install linphone
Then I started up Linphone from the XFCE Start menu, where it is listed in the “Internet” submenu. I canceled the account setup wizard because it didn’t seem to work for me, disabled Video in the Options menu because I am not planning to use it yet, then selected Options – Preferences – Manage SIP accounts and configured my sipgate.de account like this:
| Your SIP identity: |
sip:3998984@sipgate.de |
| SIP Proxy address: |
sip:sipgate.de |
Screenshot

Note that “3998984” is my sipgate.de SIP account name, so you have to substitute it with yours, but note that it is usually not the same as your sipgate.de web login username.
After this initial setup, I successfully tested the account and my headset by calling the sipgate.de test number 10005, which works very similarly to the Skype test call feature.
For personalized config information you can log in at sipgate.de and consult the “Konfigurationshilfe“, selecting one of the Linphone entries from the softphone device lists. I have a sipgate.de basic account, so if you are on a different plan, details may vary slightly.
If this blog post was helpful and/or if something seems inaccurate, please leave a comment. Happy telephoning …